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GSiN: Ch. 46
🕑 Added 2025-03-25 00:02:51 +0000 UTC---Third POV---
"Hmm..." Hearing Shukaku ask for his opinion, Ryouma lowered his head and began to think seriously. After a few seconds, he spoke up. "How about this? Just stay by my side for now and follow my instructions."
"Instructions?" Shukaku's eyes narrowed slightly. "Sure, sure! By the way, what's our relationship now?"
"Relationship?" Ryouma asked, genuinely surprised by the question.
"Am I your servant? Your weapon? Your... pet?"
Hearing Shukaku's strange question, Ryouma casually responded. "I guess we're partners."
"Partners!" Shukaku was extremely satisfied with this answer.
Before the Sage passed away, he instructed the nine tailed beasts to help humans and coexist harmoniously with them. Most importantly, he mentioned that one day, a human would appear who could guide them to understand the true essence of power.
Shukaku considered itself an exemplary model among the tailed beasts, it was a vanguard of harmony. Looking at it now, its fellow tailed beasts seemed like a bunch of idiots, while it had successfully established a genuine bond with a human.
What's more, this human had not shown any prejudice against its identity as a tailed beast from the very beginning. Instead, he treated it as an equal, engaging in conversation with respect.
It felt that Ryouma might be the very person the Sage had spoken of.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
As expected, the number of tails meant nothing. That stinking fox was probably still trapped inside some jinchūriki somewhere. Unlike it, who had truly fulfilled the Sage's dying wish.
Unlike that arrogant nine-tailed fox, always thinking more tails means more wisdom. Hah! It couldn't help but feel smug.
Thinking this, Shukaku spread its large hands and excitedly said, "Let me lead you forward!"
Since it was a free ride, Ryouma had no reason to refuse. With a leap, he landed on Shukaku's hand. After pointing out the direction, he shouted loudly, "Let's go!"
Raah!
Shukaku let out a strange roar, carefully clasped its hands together, and burrowed back underground. It then swiftly moved toward the direction Ryouma had indicated.
---
On the frontlines of the battle, Minato agilely dodged a series of projectiles controlled by Chiyo's puppets, shouting at the same time, "Jiraiya-sensei!"
"Got it! Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!" Jiraiya quickly formed seals and slammed his hands onto the ground.
Under Chiyo's feet in the distance, the ground instantly turned into a swamp.
Now for the follow-through... Jiraiya's attack didn't stop there. Seeing that the swamp had immobilized Chiyo, he formed seals again and unleashed a powerful, concentrated flame attack from his mouth.
"Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet!"
This was an advanced technique Jiraiya had developed, using the unique oil of Mount Myōboku to greatly enhance the flame's temperature and adhesiveness.
Chiyo, her feet trapped in the swamp, attempted to leap out but failed. She quickly made a decision. With a wave of her hands, her fingers flexibly manipulated three puppets to fly back and form a defensive barrier in front of her.
The puppets interlocked, forming a tri-faced shield. Their mouths opened simultaneously, creating a swirling vortex of negative pressure.
"Three Jewels Suction Crushing!"
A powerful suction force emerged again, this time pulling Jiraiya's fire attack into its vortex. Meanwhile, her other hand controlled three remaining puppets to continue attacking Minato.
During her previous intense battle with Minato, one of her puppets had been marked with a Flying Thunder God mark. Unable to afford the risk, she had to abandon that puppet. Now, she could only control three puppets with each hand.
"Wind Release: Hurricane!"
Seeing that his sister had already called back her puppets to defend, Ebizō immediately used an advanced technique, targeting Jiraiya, who was in the middle of releasing his fire jutsu.
Jiraiya couldn't stop unleashing the Toad Oil Flame Bullet and tried to dodge Ebizō's wind attack.
However, when he ceased the flame output, it coincided with Chiyo halting the absorption ability of the Three Jewels Suction Crushing, allowing her to compress and re-concentrate the flames that were already within the wind zone.
A chakra bullet was fired from the wind zone of Chiyo's controlled Three Jewels Suction Crushing, heading straight for Jiraiya.
Looking at the two attacks coming from opposite directions, Jiraiya shrugged helplessly and said, "Yare yare, Minato, you really don't know how to take it easy on me, do you?"
He then bit his finger, formed seals with both hands, and slammed them onto the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Poof!
A massive cloud of smoke spread out, revealing a giant toad. The toad pulled out a shield resembling a large, old bowl and raised it for defense.
The hurricane and the chakra bullet struck the shield, generating a massive shockwave that dispersed the summoning smoke heavily and pushed the giant toad back several meters.
Even so, the seemingly worn and comical shield firmly withstood the ferocious attacks. Jiraiya crouched slightly atop the giant toad's head, striking a stylish pose with his hands extended, one in front and one behind.
"Now entering the stage is the great toad sage of Mount Myōboku, Jiraiya!"
"As expected of Jiraiya-sensei!" Minato, dodging Chiyo's puppet attacks, still took a moment to humor his teacher.
"Gamaken, go assist Minato," Jiraiya instructed the giant toad beneath him, then leaped down from its head.
"I'm not very reliable, but I'll do my best," Gamaken replied, hopping toward Minato.
Minato had used the Flying Thunder God Technique to perform a long-range teleport for Ryouma, consuming a significant amount of chakra. In his current state, handling Chiyo alone was proving difficult. Therefore, he decisively lured Chiyo toward Jiraiya.
Looking at the situation now, it seemed like an effective strategy. He just didn't know how Ryouma was doing.
In his opinion, given Suna's seriousness about this war, it was highly likely they would send a jinchūriki to launch a surprise attack on the rear.
While this tactic was incredibly risky, if successful, Konoha would suffer devastating losses. Considering the situation on other fronts, Konoha's best outcome would then be to negotiate peace with Suna at a high cost.
But for some reason, Minato chose to trust Ryouma, believing that he would handle any enemies that appeared in the rear.
Of course, no matter how much faith he had in the boy, he could never have imagined the method Ryouma would use to return to the battlefield.
Chiyo was growing anxious, as she had yet to receive the signal indicating that Rasa's plan had succeeded.
The time had long exceeded what was allotted in the plan. Chiyo couldn't help but prepare for the worst-case scenario, that Rasa and the One-Tail jinchūriki had already been defeated, or worse… Chiyo didn't dare continue down that line of thought. However, reality kept reminding her that Suna might be in dire straits.
Earlier, Minato suddenly disappeared from her sight, and when he reappeared, his chakra response had diminished significantly.
This, combined with the absence of Ryouma's chakra response for a while, made it clear that Minato had used a space-time ninjutsu to teleport Ryouma back to the Konoha camp.
"Ryouma…" She murmured softly.
She considered herself someone who had seen her fair share of battles and storms, but she had never encountered a ninja like him.
Other prodigies would grow and rise gradually on the battlefield, like Minato before her. Their progress could be traced.
But Ryouma, the moment he entered the battlefield, displayed immense power. What was crucial was that he was a ninjutsu-type powerhouse!
In the commonly accepted view of the shinobi world, ninjutsu-type powerhouses were the hardest to cultivate, but they were also the most invincible once they matured. This type of ninja was born to be the uncrowned king of the battlefield.
At this point, there was no use overthinking. She decided to take advantage of Minato's current weakened state and attempt to kill him.
Three of her puppets, armed with a large blade, a katana, and dual swords, launched a coordinated attack on Minato, forming a tight encirclement.
Boom.
Gamaken, wielding a polearm, struck at the three puppets surrounding Minato. However, with a deft flick of her fingers, one of the puppets slipped away beneath the toad's legs.
His polearm struck the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Minato made an agile leap, using the haft of Gamaken's polearm as leverage, and landed atop the toad's head.
His chakra was insufficient. For now, it was better to stay in a safer position and recover a bit.
From his ninja pouch, he pulled out two high-quality military ration pills from the Akimichi clan. They were said to be ramen-flavored. These were bought by Kushina for him. He usually swallowed the pills in one gulp, but this time, he tried chewing them.
The taste was surprisingly good.
Looking at the massive toad before her, Chiyo furrowed her brow.
Her skill set was more tailored for direct confrontations. Asking her to deal with large summoning beasts was not her specialty.
With the protection of this enormous toad, her plan to swiftly kill Minato seemed to be foiled. But where there was a will, there was a way.
She began controlling her remaining six puppets to weave through the battlefield, cutting down Konoha ninja one by one.
For the majority of ninja battles, aside from a few exceptions, taijutsu dominated. Puppet techniques excelled in this area because their mechanisms allowed them to perform moves that were impossible for normal humans.
Imagine fighting a puppet in close combat. After finally finding a blind spot to strike, its head suddenly rotates 180 degrees, and it breathes out a jet of poison.
This was why Minato, despite his limited chakra, relied on taijutsu and his sharp reflexes to maneuver around her. Eventually, he managed to shift their battlefield closer to Jiraiya.
To complicate matters further, she had poisoned her puppets' weapons.
Any Konoha ninja touched by her puppets would, even without a critical wound, exhibit signs of poisoning within seconds. This often left them vulnerable to being finished off by other Suna ninjas before they could use antidotes.
"So, what will you choose now?"
It was evident she was presenting Minato with a dilemma. Since he was atop the giant toad and out of her reach, it also meant he could not interfere with her actions for the moment.
This was precisely what Minato feared the most.
On the battlefield beneath Gamaken's feet, one of her puppets, wielding a large blade, swung at the neck of a Konoha chunin who had just defeated a Suna ninja.
"Behind you!"
A teammate of Sarutobi Chitake shouted from a distance, trying to warn him, but someone else was faster. A three-pronged kunai streaked past behind Chitake in an instant.
Minato drove the Rasengan into the large-blade puppet. Just as the Rasengan was about to strike the puppet, Chiyo in the distance smirked.
"Finally fell for it."
Her fingers moved swiftly in the air as if manipulating an intricate and invisible mechanism. The large-blade puppet disassembled instantly, its components scattering into the air.
Minato's strike hit nothing but air, but with his speed, he immediately realized it was a trap.
He attempted to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport away, but his chakra reserves were critically low.
The recent spatial teleportation combined with the Rasengan had consumed the little chakra he had still left.
Under Chiyo's control, the disassembled components of the puppet lit up with blue chakra glows, revealing summoning seals on the parts. Blades shot out from the components, their edges gleaming with poison, and chakra threads connected them to each other.
With a series of mechanical clicks, the poison-laced components reassembled, forming a spiked enclosure aimed directly at Minato.
Just in the nick of time, Chitake grabbed Minato's arm and pulled him out of the trap's deadly center.
Clang, clang, clang!
The components collided with each other, retracting their blades before reassembling back into a large puppet.
"Go!!"
Chiyo, frustrated at missing her chance, immediately commanded the other puppets to attack Minato again.
But Gamaken intervened. With deft swings of his giant polearm, he forced the puppets back.
"Thanks."
"Though I'm not very useful, I'll do my best to cover for you." Chitake let out a sigh of relief. If Minato had died saving him, no amount of sacrifice could atone for his guilt.
But misfortune always strikes without warning.
A circular mechanism suddenly shot out from underground, expanding rapidly into a lion's head about one meter tall.
With its jaws wide open, it struck Minato in an instant, pinning him to a large tree.
"Lion Closing Roar."
A sealing array appeared on the tree's trunk, completely sealing off what little chakra Minato had left.
"Damn it!" Chitake rushed to Minato's side, attempting to free him. However, faced with Chiyo's sealing technique, he couldn't even understand it, let alone break it. His lack of skill was painfully apparent.
From a distance, Chiyo's expression relaxed slightly. Finally, some good news.
Who would have thought Minato would dare to rejoin the battle with such a minimal amount of chakra recovered? It didn't matter anymore, so long as the outcome remained unchanged.
"Mechanical Light Spear Assault."
She manipulated her puppets, giving Minato no chance to catch his breath. With his chakra completely sealed, he was left defenseless. Although, under Kushina's guidance, he was also an expert in sealing techniques, the situation was dire.
He could easily help others break seals, but being sealed himself made the situation far more difficult.
